May 2015

I've resigned myself to the fact that I can only make the time to write on my blog once a month. So here is my post for the month of May. :)

Of course the most important thing in May is ... Marcus's birthday! He turned two this month!  Oh my gosh, I love his guts! He is such a ray of sunshine and brings an incredible amount of happiness and laughter into our home. He's such a happy little guy!
 
We celebrated his birthday the day before with our families. We had a nice dinner and opened presents. He loved all his gifts and he really loves his family!

On his actual birthday he woke up early with a nasty cough, poor guy! We had put a dozen blue balloons in his room while he was sleeping, but since he woke up early, he didn't even notice them. Sad. I brought him in bed with me and we snuggled for an hour while he slept a little longer. That was my favorite part of the whole day. :) We got a phone call that morning that Mitch's Grandpa Jory had passed away. While it is always sad to lose a loved one, he was in a lot of pain and it was comforting to know that he was no longer suffering here on earth.

We turned his car seat around now that he's two.

Our day was spent at the park, opening more birthday presents, and taking the kids out to dinner at one of Marcus's favorite places, Chick-fil-a. He had a great birthday! He said, "Thank you" which he says as, "Ummm!" every time we told him Happy Birthday. We sang happy birthday songs to him several times throughout the day (the regular version and the version from the Primary book/CD). I don't think he completely understood what was going on, but he seemed to enjoy it!

He seems to be talking more and more. It seems like he surprises us with a new word or two every day. He is still telling knock knock jokes. This may or may not be driving us crazy. ;) He likes to sing and especially loves to listen to Taylor Swift in the car. Ha, ha! He is still a mamma's boy and in the morning will tell Mitch to go out of the room while he snuggles with Mamma. Poor daddy, sometimes I think he feels bad that Marcus doesn't like him in the morning. But he does love his daddy!

This is his genuine smile. I love his huge grin!

Layla had her 5 year old check up recently. She weighs 42 lbs and is 43.5 inches tall. She is 75th percentile for height and about 60th percentile for weight. Healthy and happy!

Before preschool ended, I went on a field trip with Layla and her class to Great Harvest Bread Company. It was fun, delicious, and educational. I am so thankful that I can have those experiences with her. Of course, her boyfriend, Logan, was there too. They were "field trip buddies" which means they had to stay by each other during our outing. They were the only buddies holding hands, and when another little girl said, "Hi, Logan!" Layla immediately replied with, "He's here with me!" Oh.my.goodness are we in trouble!?!

The day she invited two friends over after preschool (without asking me first).
My social butterfly!

Preschool graduation was last week. Mitch was able to come home from work and go with us. I love her teacher, Tiffany McMinn, and I really love that she literally lives around the corner from us. It was so convenient! I hope she is still teaching when Marcus goes to preschool!


Tiffany gave each student a DVD of pictures from their field trips and parties set to music. The last song on the DVD is "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." As we were watching it at home, I teared up because I was noticing how much Layla had grown up over the course of the school year. She lost her round face and grew taller and slimmer. As the video ended, Layla walked over to me with tears in her eyes and said, "I don't want preschool to end!" then she just lost it and started sobbing. It was so sad! And it made me cry harder. I explained to her that change can be hard, but it can be exciting too, and she will see all of her friends in Kindergarten, even if they're not in the same class, etc. She just kept saying, "I don't want to go to Kindergarten. I want to stay with Momma forever! I don't want to grow up. I love preschool! We have so much fun together in preschool! I don't want it to end! etc," all while sobbing uncontrollably. I felt bad for her and also caught a glimpse of her future, dramatic, teenage years. ;) She is such a sweet, social, tender-hearted girl and I love her!

First day of preschool.

Last day of preschool.

A neat experience I had with her recently was when I asked her to help me put away some laundry and as she ran back into the room, she told me that she felt the Holy Ghost tell her that she "should always help her mom." It made me happy to know that she is learning to feel the promptings of the Spirit, as that will be such a guide and director for good in her life if she will listen. I know it has been for me.

She wrote this all by herself. I helped her spell green and queen. 

Layla is still rockin' the piano! I am impressed with her talent and my dedication to making her practice. ;) She had her first group recital recently. I dropped her off at her piano teacher's house and she played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (right hand only) in front of a dozen other students. I was proud of her for going all by herself (she was the youngest and newest student, by far) and I was thankful that she was impressed and motivated by the older students.

Helping Marcus play basketball.

Mitch had kind of a bummer delay with his school recently. He wrote a proposal for his dissertation about a year ago, and is just now learning that he has to re-write it (more or less). The professor who was originally supposed to review it didn't get around to reading it for, oh, about a year. No big deal. In the mean time, Mitch was constantly asking and reminding him to read it. When he finally did, he realized that he wasn't the right professor and Mitch had to switch mentors! The new professor understands the subject better, and told Mitch he needs to "make a few changes" which in the end is basically starting over. Geez, would have been nice to know this a year ago instead of wasting all this time, huh?!? Anyways, I feel bad that happened and am trying to make sure we set aside time for him to work on it each day = single mom life for me. And might I say, props to all the real single mom out there! I really can't complain, it's not that bad at all, but I am definitely excited for him to finish!

At Chuck E. Cheese's for Marissa's birthday party.
Layla has ALWAYS wanted to go there!
I went on a ride just like this as a kid and for years had reoccurring dreams about it.
Weird, huh?
I was excited when Layla rode it and liked it.

I love my little family and I am grateful every day that I get to be home with them!